Fallen tree leads to short power outage for 4,000 Orangeville residents

June 23, 2022 · 0 Comments

By Sam Odrowski

Roughly one third of Orangeville Hydro customers lost power last Friday (June 17).

High winds caused a tree to fall on a hydro line at C Line, impacting just over 4,200 customers from 1:03 to 1:43 p.m.

The cause of the power outage was a fallen tree, knocked over from high winds of up to 70 km/h on Friday afternoon.

“The outage was a result of our M26 feeder going down, the feeder provides electricity to the central, east, and south part of town, 4,234 customers to be exact,” said Orangeville Hydro, marketing and communications coordinator, Larissa. “This means that the outage could be in a few different places. What we didn’t know is why it was down, or where exactly it went down.”

She continued, “We would like to give a big shout out to our customers for being the eyes and ears in these situations and for helping us find the root cause of this particular outage. While our line staff were patrolling the affected areas to find the cause, a customer called reporting a large tree had fallen on the line. By this customer calling, it helped to minimize the time of the outage to 40 minutes.”

Larissa said in the event of a storm, be aware of downed powerlines that may be hidden beneath debris.

“Wait until powerlines are repaired before starting yard cleanup as they can still be energized,” she noted.

Always exercise caution and stay at least 10 metres – the length of a school bus – away from downed powerlines at all times.

When coming across a downed powerline, call 911 and contact Orangeville Hydro at 519-942-8000.

“It is beyond helpful when our customers call in and report hearing a large bang, seeing a spark, or a tree/branch on a line,” Larissa said. “When the citizens of town notify us of potential causes in the field, the outage time decreases and the restoration time increases! This is because we can now spend less time ‘looking’ for the cause and more time repairing the infrastructure.”